The invention relates to a method and apparatus for affixing labels and foils to bottles wherein precut labels and/or foils are picked up at a station, glue-coated on one side as they are being picked up, turned over, and pressed onto the bottles by their glue-coated side, the foils and/or labels cut from a roll being fed individually and successively, without being coated with glue, to the pickup station for the foils and/or labels at the rate at which they are picked up by the gluing segments, in accordance with U.S. patent application Ser. No. 129,763, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Foil here means any kind of wrap applied to a bottle neck, in other words, both a wrap which covers the bottle neck and crown cap, and a wrap which covers only the bottle neck and possibly also the rim of the crown cap. The foil may be a metal foil, a paper-backed metal foil, or paper.
Prior-art labeling and foiling methods can be divided into two groups so far as the transfer of the cut-to-size labels and foils is concerned. In the first of these groups, precut labels and foils are adhered to the bottle simultaneously or successively. An example of such a labeling and foiling apparatus is known from German patent 10 14 922. In that apparatus, label and foil are fed into the conveying path of the bottles and, as the bottles move on, wrapped around them, pressed onto them, and smoothed down.
The second group of labeling and foiling machines is characterized in that foil is pulled and cut discontinuously from a rolled-up web of foil, the pieces of foil so cut off being glue-coated and transferred to a gripper cylinder which then presses them onto the circumference of the bottle. Examples of such labeling and foiling machines are known from German patent 21 60 212, French patent 72 39 096, and German patent applications DOS 17 86 043 and DOS 15 86 388. The foil is either glue-coated before it is cut off, as in German patent 21 60 212, or then the glue is applied after or during the transfer of the cut-off foil to the gripper cylinder, as in German patent application DOS 15 86 388 or in French patent 72 39 096 and in German patent application DOS 17 86 043, respectively. With both groups of labeling and foiling machines, the cut-to-size foils can be adhered to the bottle neck also in diamond fashion.
The second group of labeling and foiling machines offers the advantage over the first group that foiling is cheaper since foil in rolls costs only about half as much as precut foils. On the other hand, a drawback of the second group of labeling and foiling machines is the relative complexity of the apparatus required for taking off, transferring and glue-coating the cut-to-size foils. Separate stations are provided for transferring them to the gripper cylinder and for coating them with glue.
The aforesaid U.S. patent application Ser. No. 129,763 relates to a method and apparatus allowing lengths of foil and/or labels to be cut from a rolled-up web, thus securing the advantage of lower cost over precut foils and/or labels, as with prior-art apparatuses, while also permitting a space-saving arrangement, dispensing with the need for additional gluing means for the cut-to-size foils and/or labels, and avoiding fouling of the machine through previously glue-coated foils and/or labels.